Red Queen to Gryphon Three

about this album

This fully instrumental concept album about the rather well known game chess is widely and deservedly regarded as Gryphon’s crowning achievement. Here they found the perfect balance between their medieval folk style and progressive rock influences mainly from Gentle Giant and Mike Oldfield. The album also introduced tasteful and sparse use of synths to the band’s sound, which can be heard right away on the opening chords of “Opening Move”. The track itself follows many of the same structural ideas and complexity of the title-track from the previous album, but now with a stronger progressive rock feel mixed in with Gryphon’s trademark and delightful medieval sound. And the melodies and themes are again instantly strong and memorable. “Second Spasm” shows Gryphon at their most upbeat, cheerful and energetic. The middle part also reveals some sense of musical humour, and includes something that sounds suspiciously much like a fart! It should almost be impossible to pick a highlight from an album as thoroughly consistent and even as “Red Queen to Gryphon Three”. But if I had to pick one it would have to be the masterful “Lament”. It opens with a beautiful melody that alternates between Harvey’s recorder and Gulland’s krumhorn over the probably most genially constructed chords that the band ever created. It then goes into a quite mellow part dominated mainly by the krumhorn and a feel and atmosphere not too far from Mike Oldfield’s “Hergest Ridge” from the same year. Oberle’s cy

tracks

more from Gryphon

Gryphon

Midnight Mushrumps

Raindance

Treason

Collection II

Red Queen To Gryphon Three/Raindance